Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Australian fishing store forced to take down 'incredibly offensive' ads after they were found to 'ridicule' Muslims

A fishing shop in regional Victoria has been forced to remove two of its Australia Day advertisements after it was found they 'humiliated' and 'ridiculed' Muslims.

Trelly's Tackle World in Shepparton, north of Melbourne, had a print ad featuring products on sale with an offer of free pork kebabs: '1 day only! Halal or Haram.'

A complaint lodged with the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) claimed the advert was 'incredibly offensive', 'Islamophobic' and 'aggressively attacked Muslims'.

The complaint said the emphasis on pork - consumption of which is forbidden in Islam - was intentionally included to 'suggest that Muslims are not Australians and are not welcomed'.

Trelly's responded to the claims by pointing out the word 'Muslim' was not used in the advertisement and said that kebabs were not exclusive to any one culture.

'In Australia we are free to eat and drink what we want within the laws of Australia,' Trelly's wrote. '[The complainant] is hiding behind the misuse of very loosely used words like multiculturalism and Islamophobic.

'I have also enjoyed by far a greater number of people who like my ad.'

One of the wealthiest Cambridge colleges is to rethink its menu after ethnic minority students complained about culinary offerings such as “Jamaican stew” and “Tunisian rice” on the grounds that the names are “cultural misrepresentations” as they do not exist in their supposed native countries.

The complaints were made by Pembroke students on a Facebook page about food in the college ­restaurant. “Dear Pembroke catering staff, stop mixing mango and beef and calling it ‘Jamaican stew’,” wrote one student. “I’m actually half Jamaican pls show me where in the Caribbean they mix fruit and meat.”

Another complained about “cauliflower, date and tofu tagine with Tunisian rice and coriander yoghurt”, saying “sorry but what is this we don’t eat these tings in Tunisia”.

Monday, February 27, 2017

JEFFREY Dean Morgan isn’t very impressed with Primark’s decision to pull a T-shirt from their Walking Dead merchandise collection.

The actor, who played the murderous Negan on cult zombie show The Walking Dead, tweeted his rage after a T-shirt stocked at international clothing store Primark was discontinued.

The shirt in question featured a bloodied baseball bat with the words “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” in reference to what Negan says before killing his victims with his bat.

The phrase is taken from a children’s rhyme that goes: “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe.” However, the reference sparked the boycott because the original rhyme, which dates back to before 1820, used a derogatory slur in place of “tiger”.

Ian Lucraft, a shopper in Sheffield, UK was so offended by the T-shirt he complained directly to Primark’s Chief Executive Paul Marchant.

“We were shocked when we came face-to-face with a new T-shirt with a racially explicit graphic and text,” he told Sheffield News.

Lucraft, who is a Methodist minister in the area, said the shirt brings the racist history of the rhyme to mind, even if it doesn’t intend to.

Liberal website The Huffington Post removed a Norwegian writer’s blog post arguing that President Trump was “absolutely right about Sweden” when he criticized the liberal country’s immigration policies.

Rene Zografos, whose home country neighbors Sweden, wrote that it’s not politically correct “for journalists to say or write that immigration in Europe is unsuccessful.” Even though critics in media the mocked Trump, Zografos wrote, “he is actually spot on.”

“It’s well known for Scandinavians and other Europeans that liberal immigration comes with drugs, rapes, gang wars, robbery and violence,” Zografos argued.

He went on to say that “several European cities have huge immigration problems where even the police force is afraid to interfere in some locations in these cities.”

“This was a self-published post on our contributor platform,” a Huffington Post spokesperson told The Daily Caller. “Our editors removed it after determining that it violated our terms of use.”

Zografos’s blog post went up on Huffington Post’s contributor platform on Wednesday, with a note saying, “Contributors control their own work and post freely to our site.”

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Carnival party in Bavaria sparks racism debate in Germany

"Neger" is the normal German word for "negro", which is not abusive

A charity ball in Raindorf has launched a debate in Germany over its use of a derogatory term for black people. The locals have defended the name as "a normal term" in Bavaria's dialect, while critics say it's offensive.

This year, a charity ball in the Bavarian village of Raindorf that donates its proceeds to development projects in African countries inadvertently caused outrage online.

The problem - the annual event is called the "Negerball," a term that translates to "negro ball" or "nigger ball". Although the term in German has a slightly less negative connotation than the English word, it is offensive to many people.

A Pennsylvania school district capitulated to the demands of a militant atheist who filed a federal lawsuit demanding the district remove a Ten Commandments monument erected on a public high school campus. New Kensington-Arnold School District agreed to give the massive monument the heave-ho, ending a lawsuit filed in 2012 by self-avowed atheist Marie Schaub. Ms. Schaub claimed the 6-foot-tall stone monument posted outside Valley High School was a religious symbol and therefore was a violating of the U.S. Constitution.

“It’s unfortunate that many people in my community don’t understand or appreciate the separation of church and state, but I hope this settlement serves as an important lesson,” she told the Valley News Dispatch. Ms. Schaub also claimed the monument was offensive to herself and her daughter. I can only imagine which commandment she found to be more offensive? If I was a betting man I’d say it was either the one about coveting thy neighbor’s ass or the one about graven images. Anyway, the school district has 30 days to extricate the monument from the front lawn — and it also has to fork over $164,000 in legal fees.

“We’re very pleased,” Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Patrick Elliott told the Valley News Dispatch. “It means that the Constitution is being followed by the school district.” FFRF is a group of perpetually offended atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers based in Wisconsin. They intentionally bully and intimidate small towns and communities in their quest to eradicate Christianity from the public marketplace. They are truly an unpleasant bunch of people, folks. Supt. John Pallone told the local newspaper they agreed to settle the lawsuit “in order to take the high road.”

Complaint prompts NJ school to apologize for having fried chicken on menu during Black History Month

Race-baiting has become a blood sport for leftists seeking imaginary victimhood.

The superintendent of the Hopewell Valley Central High School in Pennington, New Jersey, has apologized after someone complained that a lunch menu had offered fried chicken to celebrate Black History Month.

The menu also served other soul food staples such as corn bread and macaroni and cheese. It’s unclear who complained.

Superintendent Thomas A. Smith apologized in a memo, saying the school did not intend to reinforce racial stereotypes, NJ.com reported.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

I personally would burn pedophilic scum at the stake, as it can be very damaging in the context of our culture. Those of us who study ancient history, however, know that in the brilliant culture of ancient Greece, homosexual pedophilia was not only normal but regarded as beneficial to a boy's education and development. Yiannopoulos was probably aware of that. He is himself Greek. The words he used are certainly reminiscent of ancient Greek thinking. I am told that modern-day Greeks can read ancient Greek with a bit of effort.

There are however some things well-known in scholarly circles which cause outrage when mentioned in public -- such as average black IQ -- so it was certainly unwise of Yiannopoulos to say what he did. He is an iconoclast but that is one area where there is no public support for iconoclasm. As a homosexual, he was probably out of touch with mainstream views on the matter.

I am walking on thin ice in making this comment. Chris Brand was fired from a tenured teaching job at the University of Edinburgh for saying that there are varieties of pedophilia and that not all are equally harmful, which, I suspect, reflects his own experience. The British upper class are notoriously homosexual in their youth. It is said that in British "public" (Private) schools, homosexuality was not so much condoned as compulsory. Those old respectable British guys pictured in felt hats and smoking pipes could well have sucked on other things in their pastI hope I have made clear, however, that my comment is a scholarly one and that I do not in any way approve of any sort of pedophilia. I am a much published academic psychologist so it lies well within my field of academic expertise to make a scholarly comment on the matter.

IT HAS been a shocking 48 hours for Twitter’s most hated man, Milo Yiannopoulos.

The Trump-loving, gay, conservative firebrand has had what his detractors could accurately describe as a stunning fall from grace, which culminated this morning with him being forced out of his job as tech editor at controversial right-wing news site Breitbart. In part, due to what he described as “imprecise language”.

The self proclaimed “virtuous troll” has been accused of inciting hatred towards feminists, trans people and the Black Lives Matter movement, promoting white nationalists ideas, and has been banished from Twitter.

But it was remarks he made in a podcast about underage sex that prompted a new level of backlash against the 33-year-old. On Tuesday a clip from last year was widely circulated in which Mr Yiannopoulos flippantly said young boys “discover who they are” through relationships with older men, later implying that those relationships can be sexual in nature.

For him, it was the choice of a single word that brought him undone. “I shouldn’t have used the word boy,” he said during a lengthy press conference this morning announcing he was leaving Breitbart.

“Gay men often use the word boy or girl to mean men of consenting age. But I understand how heterosexual people may not have realised that and that was an error,” he said.

“I’m certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret. But anyone who suggests I turn a blind eye to illegal activity or the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong.”

It was clearly a silly stunt mocking conventional sensitivities -- and that is in general no bad thing. But anything that encourages antisemitism is undoubtedly deplorable. Something should have been said in rebuttal of his slogans -- but then it was, in the WSJ. I would have been inclined to leave it at that

PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, is the biggest star on YouTube. He posted a video from January where he used the service Fiverr to pay two Indian men to hold up a sign that said “death to all Jews.”

Last week YouTube and Disney’s Maker Studios severed their relationships with Kjellberg after the Wall Street Journal reported on his repeated use of anti-Semitic humor

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Hate from the anti-hate brigade

The text below is from a British group calling itself "Resisting hate". They have clearly got a lot of their own hate to go around. They clearly hate Mr Trump (of course!) and various people in Europe.

And they make not the slightest attempt to justify their hate-speech. They call Mr Trump a Fascist -- quite ignoring the fact that Fascists practice strong government control of people while Mr Trump is a vigorous de-regulator. They hate him so much that they call him by his opposite. A nasty lot

It's all rather amusing, actually. The Left are great users of Freudian projection -- seeing their own faults in others. And the screed below is a nice example of that

There is little need to recap the chaos of 2016. Certainly to anyone with a social media presence or who reads the newspapers the horrors have been all too evident. From an increase in worldwide terrorism to the shock Brexit referendum through the rise in Nationalism, evidenced by support for hate groups like Britain First and National Action, and culminating in the election of a fascist to the American presidency – 2016 was not a good year for humanity.

The worry for many is that 2017 will bring more of the same. Trump takes up his seat in the White House in January, The Netherlands have a strong candidate for hate – Geert Wilders – in their March elections and the equally abhorrent Marine Le Pen, the fascist leader of Front National in France has promised a referendum on the French exit from the EU “Frexit” if she comes to power in April.

Has Google, the world’s most popular search engine, changed the definition of the word “fascism” to protect liberal mobs using violence to silence those who disagree with them politically? The evidence suggest they have.

You see it on signs at every protest or riot — liberals accuse President Donald Trump of being a fascist. The word’s association with Adolf Hitler and its use now is no accident, it’s meant to strike fear in people’s hearts of tyranny.

Merriam-Webster defines the word “fascism” as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” The secondary definition is “a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.”

This definition reflects the fact that Nazis were, in fact, both fascists and of the political left. They were the “National Socialist German Workers Party,” which favored a heavy-handed government in business and the personal lives of its citizens.

The authoritarian government of Nazi Germany not only oppressed opposing political views and used violence to enforce it, they supported a powerful central government which heaped social benefits on its citizens. The second part of Nazism is the “socialist” part, which is very similar to what the modern American political left advocates. For all their bluster to the contrary, Hitler was a man of the extreme left, and so was fellow fascist and Axis Powers member Benito Mussolini.

But if you type the word into Google, the definition they provide is quite different. The world’s largest search engine pins fascism on the political right, not the left.

Google defines fascism as, “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”

That’s a striking difference from how the word has been defined for decades.

Political conservatives advocate for small, less intrusive government where power rests with the states and individuals, and the federal government lives within its Constitutional restraints. Progressive liberals advocate for just the opposite: a powerful central government with authority vested in a strong leader who has the ability to impose decrees from Washington on everything from health care to education.

Google curiously adds “right-wing” to its definition and omits the “severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition” part.

By the traditional Merriam-Webster definition of “severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition,” the violent mobs protesting and rioting over President Trump’s actions are the ones engaging in fascistic tactics.

The exact reason Google has changed the definition of fascism to reflect on the political right rather than the left is unknown. However, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, one of the world’s richest men, has been a vocal critic of President Trump, an activist liberal, and has protested the President’s executive order on immigration.

Many members of the mainstream media have unquestioningly adopted the new Google meaning without explaining why, leaving their audience with the impression that speech or advocacy contrary to liberal orthodoxy is fascistic when, by definition, it is not.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Must not mention slavery

Parents of students at Windsor Hills Elementary School in Los Angeles are outraged after second-graders at the school received a math homework assignment last week that contained a word problem with racial undertones.

NBC News reports that students received the following word problem as part of their math homework:

The master needed 192 slaves to work on plantation in the cotton fields. The fields could fill 75 bags of cotton. Only 96 slaves were able to pick cotton for the day. The missus needed them in the Big House to prepare for the Annual Picnic. How many more slaves are needed in the cotton fields?

Karol Gray’s 7-year-old granddaughter had questions about her homework assignment Thursday and showed it to her mother. Gray said she was shocked at what she saw.

“Although it has racial undertones, I feel the worse undertone is, ‘What are we teaching our children?’” Gray said.

Windsor Hills is a gifted magnet school known for its math and science programs.

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that a homework assignment with a problem regarding slavery was given to young black students during Black History Month.

In Britain in 2017, you can be punished for your private thoughts. You can be ridiculed in public for what you say behind closed doors. You can be made to apologise to the world for something you said in confidence to a friend. Seriously. How else do we make sense of the scandal over Tory Brexit minister David Davis’s text messages about Labour MP Diane Abbott? Here we have a politician being demonised by the political and media set — branded ‘vile’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘appalling’ — for a private comment. That should worry you far more than what Davis actually said, for it suggests there is now no area of life where you can speak freely and frankly without risking sanction.

After the Commons vote on Brexit last week, Davis is said to have approached Abbott for a kiss but apparently she told him to ‘fuck off’. Later, a Tory friend texted Davis to ask him about the incident. Davis texted back saying he hadn’t tried to kiss Abbott, and wouldn’t, because ‘I am not blind’. In short, he thinks Abbott is unattractive.

It is tempting at this point to say Davis’s text messages were crude. But that would be wrong, because the fact is they’re none of our business. He did not say these things for public consumption. It was an off-hand, matey remark of the kind all of us make via text or email or WhatsApp or whatever. That Davis’s texts were leaked doesn’t make it okay to haul him over the coals for them, to insist that he retract and repent, because this still amounts to shaming someone for a private conversation. The correct response to the texts would be to say: ‘This is not my concern. People can think and say whatever they like in private.’

Of course that hasn’t been the response, because such is the stifling intensity of the ‘You Can’t Say That!’ culture that now even private speech, glorified thoughts in essence, are considered fair game by the shut-it-down brigade. ‘You Can’t Think That!’ — the next, logical frontier. So it was that Labour MPs ‘called out’ Davis for being ‘misogynistic’, a ‘total and utter disgrace’, a ‘vile, sexist man’. He should apologise, they said. And he did. ‘The secretary of state is very sorry for any offence caused’, said a spokesman. A man publicly apologising for private chatter — this is bad.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Wikipedia censorship

They are censoring a major conservative news source. Their Leftist bias is now writ plain. What else are they censoring?

Wikipedia has banned the use of the Daily Mail as a source of information on its site. The self-styled ‘library of the web’ has decided the largest tabloid news site in the world is ‘generally unreliable’ and has a reputation for ‘poor fact-checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication’. Yes, a crowd-sourced website that can be edited by any Tom, Dick or Harry is now fretting about facts.

The Daily Mail is subject to libel laws, and staffed by trained journalists. This is more than can be said for Wikipedia, which is hardly famous for its reliability. In the past it has included public entries calling actor Gary Oldman a ‘giraffe’, asserting that footballer Thierry Henry ‘was born a c**t and remains a c**t’, and accusing teeny-bopper band the Jonas Brothers of having genital warts.

Whether or not you like the Daily Mail, to denounce its journalistic reputation without proof is unnecessary and wrong. Every online paper will contain occasional inaccuracies, but this is the nature of online news reporting.

Wikipedia’s editors need to be honest about their decision – they don’t like the Daily Mail because of its politics. Preaching against the Daily Mail is an easy and lazy form of virtue-signalling, exercised by people trying to demonstrate their PC credentials. From campaigns like Stop Funding Hate to students’ union bans on tabloids, there is a cultural trend towards banning opposing views. Wikipedia’s decision to remove the Daily Mail is part of this censorious climate.

Wikipedia is a valuable online tool. But if it wants to uphold a reputation for providing objective facts, it has to remain politically neutral. Given that the Daily Mail can legitimately be cited in academic papers, books and studies as a source (yet another advantage it has over Wikipedia) there is no just reason for Wikipedia to denigrate its worth.

Attempting to a pander to a certain political persuasion is a dangerous game to play for a website which asks its contributors to ‘only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions’. Pretending the Daily Mail doesn’t exist by banning it from its website won’t do Wikipedia any favours. Far more dangerous than the odd factual error in a paper is a website which cherry picks where it gets its facts from.

Free Speech Professor Takes Heat for Using Racial Epithets in Lecture at Brown

Law School professor Geoffrey Stone was challenged by a Brown University student on Friday over his use of racial slurs during a lecture on freedom of expression on college campuses at the Ivy League university.

The controversy was covered by Brown’s student newspaper, The Brown Daily Herald.

Stone used derogatory terms several times during the talk. Stone thinks that racial epithets and other forms of offensive speech should not be restricted in academic discussion.

“The use, for example, of epithets in a classroom I would think perfectly appropriate if relevant to the material, but inappropriate if a faculty member calls a student a kike, or if a student calls another student a nigger; I would say, ‘no, that’s crossing a boundary which, in this setting, is not acceptable,’” Stone said.

Stone repeated the racial slur when he told an anecdote about an incident in a class he taught on free speech. He was teaching the fighting words doctrine, which is a constitutional provision that limits the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech to exclude some speech that incites violence.

A black student in Stone’s class commented that restrictions on slurs are outdated because he thought they rarely provoke violence. Stone said that a white classmate replied, “You nigger, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” which prompted the black student to reach over and grab the classmate by the neck. Stone marveled that the white student had brilliantly illustrated the purpose of the doctrine.

“It was this amazing moment in which one student basically demonstrated that the other student was wrong, and did so in a way that was on the one hand completely inappropriate, and on the other hand wonderfully appropriate, for the moment. And everybody got it, nobody was upset,” Stone said.

During the question-and-answer session, Brown third-year Naomi Chasek-Macfoy asked Stone to refrain from the use of racial slurs.

“I wanted to thank you for your charge to boldness, and, in that spirit, would also like to respectfully request that you refrain from openly using racial epithets in public spaces. I understand you’re not representing an administration right now, but certainly that has a chilling effect on speech for people in the room,” she said.

Stone replied: “I teach, among other things, the First Amendment. There are cases that involve these words. You can’t talk about the words in the class when you’re discussing whether the word should be legal or not? Doesn’t make any sense. Or you read it in a novel that uses the words and you can’t use the words? Sorry. But I do hear you.”

As Stone went on to answer Chasek-Macfoy’s follow-up question about whether civil discourse was a question of tone or substance, he mockingly censored his own speech to make a point.

“Someone who goes around yelling and screaming epithets, even outside the classroom, in a public setting, I would say is being a jackass—can I say that? Is that OK? Just want to make sure,” he joked.

Chasek-Macfoy, who is both black and Jewish, told The Maroon that Stone’s response trivialized her concerns. “It was an unfair comparison between the n-word and the word ‘jackass.’ Those don’t carry the same weight. I thought the tone was belittling,” she said.

A longtime advocate of free speech, Stone chaired the University Committee on Freedom of Expression in 2015, and delivered the Aims of Education address on free expression to the Class of 2020. He is currently teaching an undergraduate course on free speech and the First Amendment.

Stone questioned the liberalism of students at institutions who have called off speaker engagements because of dissenting opinions, including students at Berkeley, who this week canceled the visit of Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos after violent protests broke out.

“If they thought of themselves as liberal they’d be supporting of free speech, so it’s complicated—but people who think they’re liberal, and are liberal on other issues, should be even more committed to the defense of free speech in a situation in which the power structure nationally has shifted in a way that should make them anxious,” Stone told The Maroon.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Must not record Leftist hate speech

A couple of months ago, a student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, took the following video of Olga Pere Stable-Cox, his human sexuality professor, pontificating about the 2016 election. The delightfully named Stable-Cox called the election an “act of terrorism,” labelled Mike Pence an “anti-gay human” and lamented that any American could vote for Donald Trump.

If you were wondering if there would be any repercussions for this, don’t worry. The guilty party is being punished. Peter Van Voorhis, Campus Reform:

The student who filmed his professor calling Donald Trump’s election “an act of terrorism” has received a one-semester suspension from Orange Coast College (OCC). The previously anonymous student, Caleb O’Neil, has also received a number of other sanctions for recording his professor, Olga Pere Stable-Cox, including a mandatory meeting with the Dean of Students before he is readmitted, as well as remaining on disciplinary probation for one semester upon return from suspension…

If O’Neil, who is not a member of the OCC College Republicans, fails to satisfy any of the requirements laid out by OCC, he could be expelled from the Coast Community College District for good.

All because he recorded his leftist professor saying crazy things about the election. OCC isn’t mad that she said it. They’re mad that now everybody knows about it.

O’Neil is planning to appeal this. I hope he wins. He didn’t do anything wrong, and the parents and alumni deserve to know what’s going on at that school.

Karlie Kloss apologized on Wednesday for a controversial Japanese-inspired photoshoot for Vogue in which she posed as a geisha, with dark black hair and a pale face. See the model’s apology below for the pictures, which many are deeming racist and culturally insensitive.

The shoot appeared in Vogue’s recent “diversity” issue, which was designed to celebrate women of different body shapes and ethnicities. But in the process, the photos of Kloss, dressed in traditional geisha garments, had the opposite effect and were called racist. In one image, the 24-year-old model, sporting dark hair and a yellowish hue, posed alongside a sumo wrestler. And in another picture, Kloss was standing on the stairs of a tea house wearing a flowered kimono.

After the photos emerged, however, both Kloss and Vogue were accused of racism for running the images in the “diversity” issue, which featured an Asian model on its cover with Kloss. The magazine quickly removed the photos from its website after the “yellow face” images were assailed for being racist and culturally insensitive.

A cartoon seen as anti-Semitic that was published in the UCLA student newspaper has been strongly condemned by civic and campus organizations, among them a pro-Palestinian student group.

The cartoon published Monday in the Daily Bruin shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing in front of two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. In the commandment “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” the word “not” has been crossed out in red.

Pointing to another commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” labeled as the seventh by the cartoonist, Netanyahu shrugs his shoulders and says, “#7 is next.”

In the upper left corner of the cartoon, the legend reads: “Israel passes law legalizing seizing any Palestinian land.”

It refers to a law passed last week by the Israeli Knesset that allows the state to seize private Palestinian land on which settlements or outposts were built, as long as the settlers were not aware of the status of the land. In cases where the landowners are known, they are entitled to compensation.

The cartoonist, Felipe Bris Abejon, is an undergraduate student in political science who last year served as education and resources director of the UCLA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, a strongly anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian national student group.

In a letter to the Daily Bruin, the SJP board at the University of California, Los Angeles condemned the cartoon and said that Abejon is currently not an SPJ member.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Canada: Even pretty boy is in trouble over his words

A First Nations NDP MP has written a biting, satirical letter to Justin Trudeau to "thank" him for controversial remarks he made about Indigenous youth, while taking aim at the prime minister's suggestion that some chiefs are out of touch with the needs of young people living on reserves.

Trudeau had suggested that most of the Indigenous youth he talked to wanted "a place to store their canoes and paddles so they can connect back out on the land."

Romeo Saganash, who represents the northern Quebec riding of Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou, and serves as his party's Indigenous affairs critic, told Trudeau he had no idea there was such a problem until he watched the prime minister's town hall appearance in Saskatoon. (Trudeau repeated the canoes and paddle comments, nearly verbatim, the next day in Winnipeg.)

"In fact, I am ashamed for my people that we haven't been listening to our youth in the way that you have," Saganash wrote in his sarcastic response.

The term "bogan" is an Australian slang word to describe an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status

The Project host Waleed Aly has sparked a social media storm after labelling people who work in administration jobs as "bogans".

The 38-year-old and his co-panellists Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar and Gretel Killeen were talking about a Perth small business' job ad on Gumtree which asked for "no bogans or rough people" to apply.

"If you're not taking bogans, where are you going to get good admin people?" Waleed asked the panel. "Where are they going to get them from?"

Carrie agreed and said he had a "good point", but members of the studio audience could be heard saying "ooooh" to his remarks.

Peter Helliar responded: "There's maybe a few people in the crowd who aren't happy with that, Waleed."

You could say that again. Twitter erupted with angry viewers who felt he went too far.

"Ummm did Waleed just say that? I work in admin and I am the antithesis of a Bogan. Get off your high horse," tweeted a user named Dom.

"Rude, Waleed @theprojecttv. I've two degrees, including one in Latin and Ancient Greek & all I'm looking for is an admin position. #nobogan," tweeted Donna Taylor.

"Waleed Aly called administrative staff bogans. Yep, you've returned yourself to the town of D---head in one piece," wrote 99.Boris.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Nazi-era German anthem at tennis tournament sparks outrage

It's not actually a Nazi anthem. It is just a patriotic anthem that was used both before and during the Nazi regime. It was also the anthem of the very "progressive" Weimar regime so tying it to the Nazis is a bit absurd

The United States Tennis Association has apologised after a version of the German national anthem associated with the Nazi era was accidentally sung at a tournament in Hawaii.

The obsolete first verse, including the words "Germany, Germany above all else" was sung by a soloist at the Fed Cup.

The error left members of the German team and fans upset and angry.

The USTA extended "a sincere apology to the German Fed Cup team and fans for the outdated National Anthem". "This mistake will not occur again," it said.

The song, the Deutschlandlied, became the official German anthem under the democratic Weimar Republic in the 1920s.

But after World War Two, the first, contentious verse was dropped and the Federal Republic adopted only the third verse beginning "Unity and justice and freedom".

Monday, February 13, 2017

Leftist hate speech backfires

Sen. Rand Paul voted to confirm Jeff Sessions as President Donald Trump’s attorney general, but that doesn’t mean the Kentucky Republican with libertarian leanings doesn’t have real concerns about how Sessions will run the Justice Department.

And he thinks it will be more difficult to make progress on a criminal justice overhaul with a Trump-Sessions DOJ.

“In some ways, the Democrats made it much more certain that I would vote for him, by trying to destroy his character. I think to me it’s very upsetting that they didn’t choose to go after him on particular issues like civil asset forfeiture, where they might have been able to persuade someone like me,” Paul said Thursday. “They chose to go after him, and try to destroy a man’s character.”

This morning I tweeted a link to a great video that describes in detail how Twitter “throttles” the tweets of any content that disagrees with their political views. The video describes how Twitter gives a fake message that some tweets are no longer available, to discourage you from clicking to them. The tweets still exist, and you can access them by directly clicking the links in the tweets, but most people would not think to do that.

If you don’t think that’s a real thing, here’s my tweet about the video. They did it to me. And this is common for my tweets about Trump or climate science. They throttle me to prevent them from going viral. And it only happens with certain types of content.

And it isn’t just me.

I would argue that the human mind has recently evolved to include the thinking process of social media as a whole. We’re connected to social media like a great hive mind. And thanks to scientific advances in datametrics, the social media companies now have almost perfect mind control technology. We connect to the hive mind, the social media giants decide who sees what messages, and they program us individually. You get different persuasion than I do.

I no longer have freedom of expression in the way that most of you still do because the social media platforms throttle my ideas. And you know why this isn’t the biggest story in the world?

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Trailer for 'racist' Netflix series Dear White People 'gets a million dislikes in just ONE day' - and sparks customer revolt

The trailer for a controversial new Netflix programme has sparked a fierce race row - losing the entertainment company numerous customers in the process.

More than 250,000 'dislikes' were registered for the Dear White People preview on Friday, just 24 hours after it was officially uploaded to YouTube.

But the true scale of the discontent could be much higher after claims the online broadcaster deleted both a million views and 100,000 accompanying negative comments.

The 30-second clip opens with a collection of Caucasian stereotypes and the show's African American protagonist, Samantha, hectoring students at the fictional Winchester University.

'Dear white people,' she says. 'Here’s a list of acceptable Halloween costumes: pirate, slutty nurse, any of our first 43 presidents. Top of the list of unacceptable costumes: me.'

It then shows a number of college students sporting so-called 'black face' and the violent responses that follow.

Unsurprisingly, plenty of viewers expressed their displeasure in the YouTube comments section.

One wrote: 'Not reverse racism, it's just plain racism. Bye Netflix!' while another added: 'Amazon Prime is the new Netflix, and its better. Goodbye Netflix, enjoy your racism.'

A third chimed in: 'I say this as a black person...I find it racist as hell. People find it funny when a black person is racist to a white person, but when the roles are reversed, man you are a horrible!

Friday, February 10, 2017

Some explanations for poor school performance are not permitted

"Dangerous" thoughts below, apparently

SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass. - Racially insensitive statements by teachers during confidential interviews, and a letter that Receiver-Superintendent Jessica L. Huizenga recently wrote that some parents suggest ventured too far into politics, have fueled concerns in the state-run school district.

Both issues surfaced last week and are expected to be aired at a community meeting Thursday evening.

Twelve months ago, the state seized control of the chronically underperforming district, which has a high concentration of Hispanic students.

During a meeting of the School Committee and Town Council last week, a special-education presenter included a series of offensive statements by anonymous teachers.

To a question about what's the root cause of behavior and academic issues in Southbridge, the auditor reported a teacher said, "All the Puerto Rican families end up living together because they cannot afford their own housing and then they end up inbreeding."

Another teacher asserted that immigrant parents don't provide structure, while a third teacher pointed to a widespread drug problem.

The statements originated during focus groups of teachers, parents and staff members during an audit. Ms. Huizenga said she will never know who made the statements because of confidentiality agreements.

Presenter Lauren Katzman, the executive director of the Education Development Center's Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, called it "dangerous to think like that and work with students."

Bristol University students have been accused of “blacking up” for a fancy dress party after wearing cornrow braids to impersonate fictional characters for the television show Orange is the New Black.

However, the two female undergraduates have defended their outfits, claiming they were dressing up as a “white girl with blonde hair” and were merely wearing heavy facial make–up.

The university has summoned them to a meeting with Professor Nishan Canagarajah, who is chair of Bristol’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group. The theme of the house party, which took place on Friday night, was Teams, Memes and 2016.

They were accused by peers of cultural appropriation, with the student union stating that it is a case of racism. But the students rejected the claims, saying they were dressing up as a white character, named Patricia Miller.

One told student paper The Tab: “I’ve been wanting to get my hair done in braids for a while now… Wearing BB CRÈME, which is not to be confused with foundation is what I always wear on a night out. I find it deeply offensive to be accused of being racist for my hairstyle, make-up and outfit.”

Thursday, February 09, 2017

Sportsmen must not mention the race of their wives

Atlanta Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox has received an undisclosed discipline from the organization for a racially charged joke he made during a season-ticket holder event last month, a team executive told ESPN's The Undefeated.

Wilcox, who is white, fielded questions from about 200 season-ticket holders and club members at a "Chalk Talk" event on Dec. 7. After some challenging questions from attendees, Deadspin reported that Wilcox responded by saying he had "a black wife and three mixed kids, so I'm used to people being angry and argumentative."

A Hawks internal investigation from Dec. 27 to Jan. 9 that included interviews with attendees concluded that Wilcox didn't use the words "angry and argumentative," but the mention of race merited his being reprimanded internally by the franchise.

"After hearing multiple sides of the story and getting multiple eyewitness accounts of what took place, I am not convinced that what we heard and read in Deadspin is a direct quote that was used," Nzinga Shaw, Hawks and Philips Arena chief diversity and inclusion officer, told The Undefeated on Tuesday. "Wes, however, certainly did make his off-color statement, which included elements of describing his wife's race. People that were in the room could make the assumption that he was using her race for the reason of the comments that followed. We certainly do not approve of this behavior and we are going to handle this manner internally."

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Supermodel Gigi Hadid is facing online backlash after a video surfaced showing her squinting her eyes to imitate an East Asian person.

In a clip posted by Bella Hadid and later deleted — but not before the video had spread and been shared by other accounts — Gigi is seen smiling and making the offensive facial expression while out with friends.

In the hours since it has been shared, other social media users have chimed in to criticize Gigi, with some claiming she has exhibited 'racist' behavior before.

The very short clips features Gigi and friends at a restaurant, where several are singing Happy Birthday.

Gigi holds up a cookie in the shape of the Buddah, then smiles and squints her eyes to imitate his face.

I think the name simply reflects that taxi drivers in the area are mostly Indian. Most drivers where I live are Indian. They seem to like the predominantly cash business. I was a taxi driver myself many years ago so I know a bit about that

London: A UK city Council has named a crackdown on dodgy taxi drivers ‘Operation India’, sparking outrage over the ‘racist’ labelling of the scheme. ‘Operation India’ was launched in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, as a joint initiative between council taxi licensing officers and police to carry out checks on taxi drivers.

But both councillors and the taxi community have described the name of the scheme as racially insensitive. “This name must be reconsidered, people will be outraged and it does not send a good message about ethnic minorities,” councillor Mohammed Khan was quoted as saying by Milton Keynes Citizen. “It’s essentially blaming all Indian taxi drivers, these are good hard working people who work unsocial hours to make sure people get home safely,” he said.

A taxi boss, who has worked in Milton Keynes for 12 years, said, “I don’t have a problem with the police and council coming to check that our taxis are legal and safe.” “However to use ‘India’ as the name of the operation is racially insensitive and it should be retracted. Just to use the word...it’s like they’re implying criminal drivers are Indian,” the taxi boss said.

“I think it will cause outrage across the taxi driving community, why did they have to use a country or race?” the taxi boss added. Chief executive of the Milton Keynes Equality Council, Navrita Atwal said, “The name ‘Operation India’ could be perceived as misleading.” “We are living in sensitive times and should exercise double caution as to not cause offence or mistrust as community relations take a long time to build,” she added.

Monday, February 06, 2017

A group of traditional Morris dancers were "forced to abandon" a city centre performance on Saturday after they were threatened and accused of being racist for painting their faces black.

Witnesses claim the group, from Alvechurch, were heckled and threatened by a minority of onlookers during performances on Corporation Street and New Street near the Bullring.

The dancers were one of more than a dozen Morris groups who were in the city centre on Saturday to celebrate Plough Monday – the traditional start of the agricultural year.

Witnesses claim the Alvechurch group arrived at 11am and had performed without incident in pubs, to groups of local and visiting football fans and to the majority of shoppers.

The issues began when they started dancing near to the Bull outside the Bullring and later near to Marks and Spencer. They were roundly abused and threatened with violence.

One lady was particularly angry and a group of young men started to become very abusive and confrontational, accusing them of being racists, which of course they are not. They started jumping in between the dancers and knocking off their hats.

The dancers tried to explain why their faces were painted black, but they would not listen.

Morris dancers have performed with black face make-up since the origins of the dancing tradition in the 16th century. Known as "Border Morris" the tradition sees performers wearing black paint in order to disguise themselves.

One theory is that it started when impoverished 16th century farm workers had to conceal their faces to avoid being recognised while begging during winter, as asking for money was illegal.

Sunday, February 05, 2017

City Commissioners Ask Black Florida Mayor to Resign After Referring to Police Officer as a ‘Pig’

Hostility to the police among blacks is a huge problem so any encouraging of it is very problematical. Black hostility puts cops on hair-trigger alert when they approach blacks so any false move on the part of the black can get the black shot. So this is literally a life and death matter

The Stuart, Florida City Commission is demanding the resignation of Mayor Eula Clarke for making a derogatory remark last month about a Stuart Police officer, referring to him as a “pig.”

According to a complaint by the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association (PBA), which represents Stuart Police officers, the mayor entered a local convenience store, saw Officer Edward Fitzgerald speaking with an employee, and said: “I didn’t know we were serving pig tonight.”

“No City of Stuart employee should be subjected to verbal harassment or demeaning comments by one of the City’s elected officials,” the complaint stated.

“We’re outraged,” PBA president John Kazanjian said, calling the mayor’s remark “just a slap in the face…we don’t need someone like that as a public servant.”

Stuart Police Chief David Dyess told local TV channel WPTV that he was “kind of stunned or shocked that the mayor would make a comment like that to the officer.”

Mayor Clarke has repeatedly apologized for the incident, including sending a formal letter to Kazanjian in which she confessed: “I am so sorry for this entire event.”

“My choice of words, and my speech, was patently offensive, and I would hope that Ofc. Fitzgerald, and all law enforcement officers will forgive me for this transgression,” the mayor wrote.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has removed a candidate from the chairmanship race after he pointed out some Muslims persecute gay people.

Former House candidate Vincent Tolliver was ousted after he told The Hill one of the other candidates for DNC chair, Rep. Keith Ellison, should not lead the Democrat Party because he is a Muslim. The Islamic faith discriminates against gay people, he said.

“His being a Muslim is precisely why DNC voters should not vote for him,” Tolliver wrote in a January email. “Muslims discriminate against gays. Islamic law is clear on the subject, and being gay is a direct violation of it. In some Muslim countries, being gay is a hate crime punishable by death.”

“Clearly, Mr. Ellison is not the person to lead the DNC or any other organization committed to not discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation,” he added. “I’m shocked [the Human Rights Campaign] has been silent on the issue. A vote for Representative Ellison by any member of the DNC would be divisive and unconscionable, not to mention counterproductive to the immediate and necessary steps of rebuilding the Democratic Party.”

The DNC later booted Tolliver from the race. “The Democratic Party welcomes all Americans from all backgrounds,” interim DNC chair Donna Brazile told The Hill regarding the decision. “What we do not welcome is people discriminating against others based on who they are or how they worship.”

Leading Democrats were silent, however, after Ellison amplified an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory while speaking at a fundraiser for a Libyan activist calling on Palestinians to destroy Israel.

Jews have been “mobilized” by Israel to “do its bidding in America,” Ellison said at the event. Senators including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders did not speak out against the remark

Friday, February 03, 2017

Model Legislation to Protect Free Speech on Campus

On many of our college and university campuses, speaking freely is an act of bravery — if you disagree with the prevailing leftist notions about the world. Speech codes, “bias incident” systems, the mania over “microaggressions,” speaker disinvitations, and other features of contemporary college life tell non-progressives that they should just keep silent, while telling progressives that they are doing the right thing in trying to shut down debate over competing beliefs.

This has gone on far too long. In today’s Martin Center article, Stanley Kurtz writes about model legislation he worked on with the Goldwater Institute that would finally make free speech central to all the state institutions of higher education in states that adopt it.

The Campus Free Speech Act would require the governing bodies of public colleges and universities to shore up the eroding foundations of free speech and report to the public on their results.

Kurtz explains why the restoration of free speech is so important, writing, “If true freedom of speech is ‘freedom for the thought that we hate,’ then freedom is actually a form of self-mastery. Far from being license, true freedom is an act of self-control, a refusal to physically extinguish even the speech we abhor.

Shortly after the Breitbart News editor’s event was called off, he posted a statement on his Facebook page:

“I have been evacuated from the UC Berkeley campus after violent left-wing protestors tore down barricades lit fires, threw rocks and Roman candles at the windows and breached the ground floor of the building. My team and I are safe. But the event has been cancelled. I'll let you know more when the facts become clear.

One thing we do know for sure: the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down.”

In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Yiannopoulos said UC Berkeley is “a liberal campus. They hate libertarians or conservatives who dare to express an opinion on their campus. They particularly don’t like me.”

He said college campuses are places where “you should be able to engage with different ideas.”

Those who attend his appearances, he said, include people who “don’t necessarily agree with me but just want to hear the other side.

They were prevented from doing so this evening by violence from the left — the left that is terrified of anyone who they think might be persuasive or might be interesting or might take people with them.”

Thursday, February 02, 2017

Free speech protections bypassed with a flimsy excuse. How do leaflets "deface" anything?

Authorities have arrested a Medford man for posting hate-speech flyers in downtown Ashland last Sunday night.

Detectives with the Ashland Police Department arrested 28-year-old Justin Anthony Marbury on Tuesday and charged him with five counts of Criminal Mischief.

Marbury is accused of posting flyers referencing white supremacy and the Nazi party. An investigation was launched following several complaints from citizens.

Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara said it is important to note that Marbury was arrested for defacing private property with the flyers, not directly for what the flyers contained.

However, Chief O’Meara said the police department also recognizes the incendiary nature of the flyers made this situation more alarming and concerning to members of the community.

While hate speech is protected under the United States and Oregon Constitutions, the Ashland Police Department vows to do everything it can to ensure all members of the community feel as safe as possible from perceived threats to their safety.

The case was a continuation of a trial which began last year‚ where Timothy Trengrove-Jones‚ of Gleneagles flats in Killarney‚ accused co-tenant Elvira Oelofse of hate speech.

During an argument in July 2016 involving the installation of nets over plumbing ducts at the flats ‚ Trengrove-Jones‚ who is gay‚ alleged that Oelofse called him a "f****** old queen".

The nets were being installed to stop pigeons from settling in ducts but Oelofse feared the birds would be harmed and got into an altercation with workmen‚ warning them that she knew Japanese martial arts.

Oelofse and Trengrove-Jones then started arguing and he was referred to as being "common" and "disgusting" in addition to a “old queen”.

Previously the court heard Trengrove-Jones testify that the insult “was based on my identity as a gay male (and) aimed to mock me on the basis of my sexuality".

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

With America's history of shooting presidents, making thinly veiled threats sure was unwise

Josh Hadley, a 41-year-old freelance film journalist and podcaster from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, told the Guardian he had been “trolling” Trump on Twitter for about a year.

“I’ve been kind of mean, but I don’t think any of them can be construed as threats,” he said. “I’m trying to be funny. I was trying to get a reaction out of him.”

Hadley marked Trump’s inauguration day by tweeting a slightly altered quote from the Oliver Stone movie U Turn: “Thousands of people die every day … why can’t you be one of them?” On New Year’s Day, he wrote: “Do you think if I shot @RealDonaldTrump Jodie Foster would love me?” (John Hinckley Jr, who shot Ronald Reagan, wrote to the actor before the attack.)

A single Twitter account with about 430 followers may seem insignificant on Twitter, where threads often become cesspools of harassment and abuse, but on Wednesday, Hadley received shocking news from one of his employers, the Grindhouse Channel. Hadley had a regular gig writing about 1,000 words a week for the Roku channel’s website.

“It has come to our attention that you have been sending more than one electronic message or ‘Tweet’ to @RealDonaldTrump that can be construed as threatening over the past few months,” Hadley’s boss Darrin Uzynski wrote in an email. Sending threats to a sitting president or presidential candidate was a criminal offense, Uzynski added, and the company was severing its contract with him “upon advice of counsel”.

Uzynski later told Hadley that the company had been contacted by the Secret Service, prompting the firing.

For the third time since Sept. 15, controversial Christian preachers littered Locust Walk with speech railing against Muslims, the LGBTQ community and Jews — but the University’s response appeared to be slightly more aggressive this time.

Just before 3:00 p.m., the protesters were stationed in front of Van Pelt Library, and an orange vehicle — often used around campus by Facilities and Real Estate Services employees — was parked in front of them on Locust Walk. A Daily Pennsylvanian editor approached a FRES employee manning the vehicle and asked if the University requested he be there to drown out the voices of the protesters.

The FRES staffer nodded his head and said, “Yes,” but did not give his name or specify which University personnel had allegedly requested he be there. When walking beside Van Pelt, the noise from the vehicle made it close to impossible to hear the protesters, who were using megaphones.

About 20 minutes before moving to Van Pelt, the protesters were standing, holding signs and shouting through their megaphones in front of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Two orange vehicles were parked directly in front of the protesters in the middle of Locust Walk as well.

A number of employees wearing Penn jackets were also using leaf blowers on the side of Locust by Steinberg-Dietrich and on the area beside the path to the Annenberg School for Communication. The protesters vocally responded to the use of the leaf blowers, defending their right to free speech and criticizing the use of leaf blowers near their protest. It was not clear if these workers at the time were knowingly disrupting the protest.

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here